WD promises 3TB HDDs by 2010

Earlier this week Hitachi promised 4TB HDDs by 2011 and today Western Digital announced a storage breakthrough which may lead to 3TB HDDs in 2010.

Following WD's growing investments in technology the past five years,
the company achieved 520 Gb/in2 using its own perpendicular magnetic
recording (PMR)/tunneling magneto-resistive (TuMR) head technology. This
level of density produces a 3.5-inch hard drive storing 640 GB-per-platter
and single hard drive capacities as large as 3 TB. Based on the industry's
current density growth rate of more than 40 percent per year, those
capacities are expected to be available in the 2010 timeframe.

Current industry-leading hard drive densities shipping in high volume
are about 200 Gb/in2, as featured in WD's 250 GB WD Scorpio 2.5-inch
drive for notebooks and mobile applications, which began shipping in May
2007.

"WD was the first hard drive manufacturer to ship in volume the 250 GB
capacity point in the 2.5-inch form factor," said Hossein Moghadam, chief
technology officer for WD. "Our technology investments position WD with our
customers as a leading choice for the highest, cutting-edge capacities. Our
top priority will be to remain keenly focused on providing the highest
quality and reliability, which customers have come to expect from WD after
years of relying on our products."